Bangladesh mourns its founder`s killing

Dhaka: Bangladesh on Sunday observed the National Mourning Day to mark the death anniversary of its founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was killed in a military-led putsch on this day in 1975.

Twenty-eight people, including his wife and three sons, were killed. The survivors included his two daughters who were abroad.

Sunday was a public holiday with prayer meetings being held in mosques, churches and temples.

Rahman`s elder daughter and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the ancestral home at Tungipara to place wreaths at his grave.

She said in a message: "Let us march forward with bold steps in the struggle to build a Sonar Bangla as dreamt by Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) by turning the grief of the eternal loss of the Father of the Nation into strength."

She was referring to her father`s dream of making the country "a golden Bengal".

She added: "We must win the struggle to establish an economically-solvent democratic and non-communal Bangladesh which will be totally free from hunger, illiteracy and poverty."

Five of her father`s assailants were executed earlier this year after a prolonged trial, while some more are absconding.

Referring to that, Hasina said: "We have freed the nation from the stigma to some extent through executing the verdict of Bangabandhu killing case."

New Age newspaper in an editorial on Sunday said that Mujib`s murder distorted the democratic process and has had far-reaching implications for the nation, the most discernible of which is the division of the political class in particular, and society in general, right down the middle.

Calling for "inclusive politics" and fair play by all concerned, it urged Hasina to initiate "a politics of positive engagement with political opponents, for the sake of honouring Mujib`s great nationalist aspirations, at the least".